Piles of Slain, Heaps of Corpses

“In his book, Piles of Slain, Heaps of Corpses, Jacob Onyumbe Wenyi provides a splendid example of contextual interpretation of biblical texts. . . . The brutal imagery of the prophetic book of Nahum provides Onyumbe with echoes and evocations of traumatic realities in the Democratic Republic of Congo and also with ingredients needed for reconciliation. Written with clarity, passion, and methodological precision, Onyumbe’s book belongs in the hands of scholars, graduate students, and clergy.”


—Kathleen M. O’Connor, Columbia Theological Seminary





“In recovering a redemptive interpretation of the poetry that is the book of Nahum using socio-historical resources, Jacob Onyumbe Wenyi offers African (and other) readers another biblical voice speaking into contexts that yearn for voices of reconciliation rather than voices of violence. A particular contribution of this book is its attention to trauma theory, facilitating a dialogue between ancient biblical contexts circumscribed by trauma and contemporary African contexts saturated in centuries of colonial and neo-colonial trauma.”


—Gerald West, University of KwaZulu-Natal





“Onyumbe’s book casts a new light upon the book of prophet Nahum. It combines a traditional approach with modern examples of violence. . . . The book is a good contribution to modern scholarship, and I hope it will get a wide distribution.”


—Peter Dubovsky, Pontifical Biblical Institute